Opposites: Marseille & Arles
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Day 7 (7 July): The city of Marseille, France!
Finding our way in the messy streets of Marseille... A lot of immigrants could be seen in this city... Hmm, watching out for the bag with our money was of top priority!
One prominent tourist attraction was the church located in the middle of the city (and also on the hill)! However, it was a pity that we didn't have the time to go up and take a look. We had only reserved a day for exploring Marseille (and seriously speaking, I thought a day was more than enough...)
Another church that was of different architecture from the one above. ZZ's favourite line: "Say hi and BYEEE!"
Day 8 - 8 July: Took the train from Marseille to a small town called Arles!!! We deposited our baggage in a hotel, which cost us 6 Euros per person! Nevertheless, Arles was an awesome place! Situated in the province of Provence, Arles was once a Roman base for military support during the peak of the Roman Empire. The Arles Amphitheatre (shown below) is a well-preserved Roman arena that is still being used as a bullring during the summer.
Passed by quite a number of street musicians... Smoothing music playing in the air... France is indeed a romantic country!
Modern streets of Arles
An alley that we took as a shortcut... Pretty nice too...
Central Arles: Place de la République
Hehe, I went to try on some clothes since there were sales everywhere... But but... I didn't buy anything. Conserving my money for shopping in Zara Barcelona!
Important mission (one of the main reasons why we were in Arles): Source for fields of sunflower!!! So as to complete this utmost important task, we walked out of the Arles town (armed with a pathetic map) under the scorching hot weather. It was really torturous to be walking under the sun without an umbrella at temperatures of 34 - 36 degree Celsius. Worse as compared to that in Singapore... Walking past a bridge to reach the sunflower fields labeled out to us by the tourist info centre.
So after walking under such unbearable weather for 2 hours, imagine our horror when this was what we saw! Empty fields!!! *#*#$#(D)(#_)!@(*
Well, the desire to give up and turn back was very strong... But we persisted on and walked further. Finally, after another hour of searching and asking around (very problematic since most of the French ppl in the outskirts don't speak English), we reached a farmhouse with moderate size of sunflower fields! But... apparently the season for the opening of the sunflowers had been June, so most flowers were beginning to droop and fall...
There were still some that stood upright with full blossoms! At least, we had some form of returns!
After the photo shoot with the sunflowers, it was time to walk back... The weather was still bad, but we became more tolerant of it since we had accomplished our mission! Yeah!
Sitting down after reaching the city... Totally drained...
Overview: Marseille was a conflicting city. I didn't really like it since the streets were rather messy and there were many immigrants, giving me an impression that it could be fairly unsafe. One of my French friend said that Marseille is the top choice of place to live in for many immigrants from the French colonies. Even the French recommended us to go other places instead. However, some of the NOC seniors who went there before liked it precisely for this 'unique' flavour that it possessed. I guess it depends according to the taste of each individual...
Arles, on the other hand, was praiseworthy!!! The Roman monuments, which have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site, are amazing sights! It is a rather small town and it will probably take only a day to finish exploring the town. Summer is the best time since there will be bull and gladiator fights taking place in the arena during the months of July and August! August may be better since it will be cooler. Certainly worth the visit!
Leaving from our hotel in Orange (a small town that we stopped for an overnight rest) on the next day... Destination: Avignon
--Mary HAD a little lamb--
5:06 am
